Field Trip

Ok, a quick post here while the ringing in my ears dies down and I recover from my afternoon. It was Honor Roll Trip Day, and we took the school kids to Dairy Queen and Aurora Glass, a fascinating place run by the charity St. Vincent de Paul that turns old donated window glass into vases and bowls and suncatchers of many colors and shapes. We all know how I like to re-use what would normally be thrown away, so this was right down my alley.

First they break up the windows into little pieces and then pour 600 pounds of broken glass into a big furnace that heats it up to 2300 degrees. They add chemical things ranging from calcium carbonate to copper to color it purple or cobalt blue or green or whatever. A goggled and gloved man opened the door and reached into the glowing interior with a long-handled steel dipper and pulled out a glop of glass that glowed a hot vivid orange. He poured it onto a flat metal surface, where it was squeezed flat and then put into another oven to slowly cool down. It would be green when it cooled, he said.

They also demonstrated the glass-blowing they do, basically pouring the glass into a ring, then lifting the ring and shaping the drooping glass with air from a hose. At one point the blower blew up the glass like a balloon and then it shattered and little wispy shards of glass went flying through the air right toward our group of kids, which I don't think was approved by OSHA, but thankfully no one got hurt.

Then we headed home, and I had four boys in my car ranging from 6 to 9 years old. Except for opening windows and doors while the car was moving, they behaved ok. The only problem was that they talked in extremely loud voices the whole way down and back. On very boyish subjects. I tried to calm them down a couple of times while I was on the phone but then the decibels flared right up again and I just put a finger in my ear and survived.

Kyle: HEY DRIVER DRIVER! GUTS GUTS GUTS!!
Trevin: HEY YOU SAID A BAD WORD!!!
Kyle: I DID?? WHAT WAS IT??
Trevin: THAT WORD YOU SAID!
Kyle: THAT'S NOT A BAD WORD. HEY DRIVER DRIVER! BOOGER BOOGER BOOGER!!
Josh: HEY I'M HOT BACK HERE.
Trevin: HEY I HAD THIS DREAM ONE TIME AND IT WAS SO DUMB I'M EMBARRASSED TO SAY IT! I HAD THIS DREAM THAT STEVE NASH CAME TO MY HOUSE!!! AND DID YOU KNOW THAT STEVE NASH PLAYED FOR THE ARIZONA CACTUSES AND THEY WERE LIKE THE CHAMPIONS FOR SIX YEARS AND ONE TIME THEY PLAYED THE TRAILBLAZERS AND HE HAD THIS SHOT RIGHT AT THE BUZZER!
Josh: YOU WERE THERE?
Trevin: NO WE HAVE A MOVIE. SHALL I TELL YOU A JOKE? ONE TIME THERE WAS THIS AIRPLANE. . .
Kyle: AND IT WAS FULL OF BOOGERS HA HA HA!!!
Josh: HEY I'M THIRSTY.

Ok, so I didn't get the sports stuff right but the rest is pretty much verbatim.

And I don't think I need a Quote of the Day after all that.